Everything you need to know about seeds: Where to collect seeds and how to harvest and store them

Discover the delights of saving seed from your garden to sow for a brilliant display next year

By
Paula McWaters

Sep 5, 2017

• Find out how to gather and plant seeds, including when to harvest and how to store them once collected.

• Take inspiration from our list of top easy to care for plants from seed

By saving your own seed, not only are you getting something for nothing, but you can be sure that it is as fresh as possible and you know where it's come from and how it's been treated.

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Although gathering seed is a traditional part of gardening, perhaps we have lost sight of its charms over the years. This is a pity because, by collecting from plants already growing happily in your own plot, you know you can offer seedlings a head start with conditions they are likely to flourish in.

How to choose which seeds to harvest

Once you know which plants you want to harvest from, you can get picky. Certain colour strains or particularly strong plants are worth marking before the flowers go over, so tie a piece of colourful wool around the stem to mark it so that you can be sure to collect seed from that one and keep it separate from your other stocks.

Not all seed will turn out the same as its parents – that's part of the fun – and F1 hybrids definitely won't come true from seed, but a whole range of cottage- garden favourites, especially annuals and biennials, will grow reliably from your home-harvested stocks.

Jason Ingram

When to harvest seeds

The time to harvest is when the seed heads have turned brown and the seeds have gone hard. You need them to be as ripe as possible but, equally, to catch them before they burst, so check often.

Choose a fine, dry day and, using sharp scissors or secateurs, snip off the seed heads, placing them in a paper bag or envelope to avoid any fungal problems that might arise with a plastic bag or container.

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Carry a marker pen and scribble the name of the plant onto the bag as you gather, as it's easier than you might think to get seed stocks mixed up. If you don't have enough time to sort out your seeds straightaway, leave the bags in a cool, airy place until you can sift through them.

SIX EASY GROWERS FROM SEED

Sprinkle some of the seeds from these plants now to grow where they fall in the garden and save some to sow in spring, either direct into the ground or in pots and modules

Step 1: Some seeds – for example, teasels and hollyhocks – need a little help to separate them from their stems and pods. Empty the bags of harvested material out onto a sheet of clean, dry newspaper and gently tease apart the chaff with your fingers, until the seed is clean.

Step 2: Once you have done this with all your harvested seeds and they are ready to store, batch them up into envelopes – small brown paper ones are ideal as they are cheap and readily available.

Step 3: Label them all carefully and store in an airtight container in a cool, frost-free place – the back of the fridge is perfect – until you are ready to sow.

How to collect poppy seeds

Opium poppies (Papaver somniferum) are unbelievably generous with their seed and it is immensely satisfying to collect from their beautifully designed seed heads. As they ripen, the architectural pods turn from matt green to brown and little vents open up around the top, through which the tiny seeds can be poured. When dry, they rattle like maracas if you shake them, so you have an audible clue as to when they are ready.

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Alamy

Simply snip the heads off, shake them upside down into an envelope or brown paper bag and the seeds will flow out in profusion. Cut them with a long stem and you can use the heads in winter flower arrangements. Pale pink double 'Candy Floss', inky double 'Black Beauty' and purple 'Lauren's Grape' are particularly attractive varieties.

What to do with extra seeds

You'll almost always end up with more seed than you can possibly use yourself, so you can have the pleasure of sharing the bounty of your garden with friends or take part in one of the many seed-exchange schemes that operate around the country.

Semi-ripe cuttings are another good way to create 'free' plants for yourself and friends or to sell at fundraising plant fairs. Fuchsias, salvias, pelargoniums and penstemons can all be propagated like this now. Select non-flowering shoots, as these will root more quickly – they need to be firm at the base and still soft at the top – and drop them into a plastic bag while gathering.

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To pot up, trim them to about 10cm long, cutting the base below a leaf node and removing the side leaves and soft growing tip. Push them around the sides of a pot filled with free-draining potting compost mixed with alpine grit or Perlite and place in a warm, light spot out of direct sunlight. Keep the pot covered with a plastic bag until the cuttings root.

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